Activities – RAINY DAY ACTIVITIES

I love a good thunderstorm!   Today, it is raining and while the rain brings an opportunity to break from routine and spend some time indoors, it can be tricky to come up with ideas to entertain the kids without them getting cabin fever.

If you are looking for ideas to entertain your children on the French Riviera on a rainy day, please also read my previous blog post ‘Activities – RAINY DAY ACTIVITIES’ under my May 2012 archives.

One of my favourite rainy day activities to do with my son is baking.  Making muffins, biscuits or cakes can be lots of fun, and it’s educational as you can explain the various cooking ingredients and implements used.

Sometimes, we create a pretend ‘shopping list’ and ‘shopping basket’ and go ‘shopping’ filling it with items from the kitchen pantry (canned food, herbs, pasta etc).  My son is almost 2 years old, but he is learning the words for food in both French and English and I find that hands-on activities like this really help his comprehension and memory.  Plus it is fun for him to use the ingredients to then make something he can eat later!

pretend ‘grocery shopping’

Here is our fail-safe easy and delicious recipe for rainy days!  (my son is almost 2 and he helps to mash the bananas, sift the flour and mix the egg mixture so don’t be put off that your child may be too young to understand or will make a mess.  Any spillages can be cleaned up afterwards.)

BANANA MUFFINS (makes 12)

200 g (7 ozs) plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3 large bananas, mashed

150 g (5 ozs) caster sugar

1 egg

75 g ( 2 1/2 ozs) butter, melted

1.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Place baking cases into a muffin tin.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl.  Set aside.

3. Combine mashed bananas, caster sugar, egg and melted butter into another large bowl.  Fold in the flour mixture and mix until smooth.

4. Spoon into muffin tins.

5.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the muffins spring back when lightly tapped.

Bon appetit!